Prior techniques assume that the terminal can only belong to a single location area at a given time. As soon as a terminal switches to standby mode to reduce energy consumption and therefore save the battery, it identifies the location area where the change of state (the transition from an active operating mode to a standby mode) took place, referred to below as the initial location area.
In the known techniques, the terminal, despite being in standby mode, must inform a node of the network of its location area in a periodic manner or when it changes location area. To do this, a terminal in standby mode carries out a location update procedure. A location update procedure of this type is intended to inform a node of the network of the location area or tracking area in which the terminal is located in order to allow the network, if necessary, to transmit data to the terminal, such as a call, for example.
The location area update procedure consumes resources in the terminal, and more particularly electrical power, which has the effect of discharging the battery of the terminal more quickly (even though the standby mode is supposed to reduce consumption).
Thus, a need exists for a solution enabling reconfiguration of the location area of the terminal when the latter is in standby mode which is more economical with the resources of the terminal.